What If the Change Is Happening in You?
“for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:13, NKJV
We often look for evidence that God is working by watching what is changing around us. The door opens. The relationship improves. The opportunity comes. The problem gets resolved. Something happens that allows us to say, “God is moving.”
But what happens when the circumstances still look the same?
The prayer has not been answered the way you hoped. The situation is still complicated. The person you have been praying for is still making the same choices. The opportunity has not appeared.
It can feel as though nothing is happening.
But before you decide nothing is changing, look again.
You may be looking in the wrong direction.
God Also Works in Us
Philippians 2:13 reminds us that God is at work within His people, shaping both our desires and our actions according to His good pleasure.
That does not mean every difficult circumstance remains because God is trying to change us. Scripture does not give us permission to explain every delay, disappointment, or hardship that way.
But an unchanged circumstance does not mean God is inactive.
Sometimes evidence of His work is much closer than the situation we have been watching.
Maybe something that once consumed your thoughts no longer has the same power over you. Maybe you recover from disappointment more quickly. Maybe you can hear correction without immediately becoming defensive. Maybe you are less dependent on someone’s approval. Maybe you can remain steady in uncertainty that once would have overwhelmed you.
The circumstances may look familiar, but you are responding differently.
That is worth noticing.
Sometimes an Old Situation Reveals a New You
Formation can be difficult to recognize while it is happening. We often discover it when something familiar happens and our response is no longer familiar.
Think about who you were a year ago. What easily unsettled you? What did you feel compelled to control? Whose approval did you need? What was difficult to release? What consumed far more emotional energy than it does today?
Now ask yourself what has changed.
Not around you.
In you.
You do not need to find perfection. Look for evidence.
Perhaps patience is replacing urgency. Perhaps wisdom is interrupting your impulse to react. Perhaps you can say no without spending the next three days feeling guilty. Perhaps you are learning to remain quiet without feeling powerless, speak honestly without needing to win, or trust God without knowing how something will turn out.
Those changes may never appear on a list of accomplishments, but they matter.
They are evidence of formation.
Formation Before Multiplication
This is one reason formation comes first in the FORM framework I teach in Built to FORM.
We are naturally drawn to what can be built, organized, expanded, or accomplished. In ministry especially, visible fruit can easily become the evidence we use to determine whether something is working.
But before we become preoccupied with what is coming through us, we need to pay attention to what is taking shape within us.
Formation asks us to examine our character, habits, motives, convictions, spiritual maturity, and responsiveness to God. It begins personally before it becomes a leadership principle.
Because what we reproduce will eventually be affected by what has been formed in us.
Formation before multiplication.
This Week’s Wind Check
Before you focus on what still has not changed, take a few minutes to notice what already has.
Think about yourself six months ago, a year ago, or even several years ago. Consider an area where you once struggled and ask:
What has already changed in me?
What has less power over you? Where are you responding differently? What truth are you learning to trust? What can you release more quickly? Where has obedience become more natural?
Then thank God for what you recognize.
Philippians 2:13 directs the credit back to Him: “it is God who works in you.”
You can still pray for the circumstances to change. You can still desire healing, provision, reconciliation, opportunity, or relief.
Just do not let what has not changed keep you from recognizing what has.
Prayer
Father, thank You for working in me even when I cannot see everything You are doing. Give me eyes to recognize the work of Your grace within my life. Show me where my desires, responses, habits, and priorities are changing. Keep me humble about the growth I see and open to the formation that is still needed. While I continue to pray about what has not changed around me, help me recognize what You are doing within me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
This Week’s Commitment
I will not measure God’s activity only by what is changing around me. I will also pay attention to what He is forming within me..
For Leaders Building What Lasts
Formation is the first movement of the FORM framework because healthy ministry cannot be separated from the formation of the people building it. Before Order, Reproduction, and Mission, we have to examine what is taking shape in us and in the people we lead.
In Built to FORM: Formation, Order, Reproduction, and Mission for Building Healthy Ministries That Last, I take this principle beyond personal reflection and into the practical work of building healthy leaders and ministries.
Formation before multiplication.
Not because formation is a stage we eventually finish, but because what we reproduce will always be affected by what has been formed in us.
Carry This With You
Before you decide nothing is changing, look again.
You may be looking in the wrong direction.
Still listening for the wind with you,
Dr. Netra Boykin
Founder, Unveiled
Clarity. Discernment. Faithfulness.
